Casino Table Game

ABSTRACT

A casino poker card game played with a conventional deck of cards that provides each player with three face up cards and the house with three face down cards. Each player creates two two-card hands by selecting one of the three cards to be used in both hands. Three community cards are then exposed as well as the house&#39;s three cards. The house selects the two of its three cards that form the highest five-card poker hand and discards the third. The house&#39;s five card hand is compared to each player&#39;s two five card hands to determine if the player wins, loses, or pushes (i.e.: ties).

REFERENCES CITED

U.S. Patent Documents 5,713,574 February 1998 Hughes 6,170,827 January 2001 Lombardo et al. 6,332,614 December 2001 Hesse 7,407,163 August 2008 Snow 7,481,433 January 2009 Karr et al. 7,578,506 August 2009 Lambert

DESCRIPTION

1. A casino poker card game played between the house and up to fifteen players with conventional playing cards, comprising: (A) first, the wagering of a bet, and if allowed by the casino, an optional side bet, by each player; (B) second, dealing three cards, face-up, to each player and three cards, face-down to the dealer; (C) third, each player, in turn, is presented with zero or more of the following options, from which the player may select one or choose to play on without any additional bet or change in cards: (1) surrender his hand and relinquish a pre-defined portion of his bet; (2) place an additional bet; (3) pay a defined replacement fee, which may be $0, to discard one of his cards and receive a replacement card from the dealer; {Note: A variation is described in the section labeled “DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION” where the player, having previously selected the option to replace one of his cards, is subsequently presented with one or more of the following options from which he may select one or choose to play on without any additional bet or change in cards: (1) surrender his hand and relinquish a pre-defined portion of his bet; (2) place an additional bet;} (D) fourth, each player “promoting” one of their three cards, that promoted card will be combined with each of the player's other two cards to create two two-card hands; (E) fifth, dealing three community cards face up, wherein the community cards are usable by each player and the dealer to supplement each two-card hand to form a five card poker hand; (F) sixth, revealing the dealer's cards; (G) seventh, the dealer discards one of his three cards, such that the two remaining cards will yield his optimal five-card hand when combined with the three community cards; (H) eighth, for each player, determining how many of their two five-card poker hands are higher than the dealer's five-card poker hand and resolution of all bets; said steps (A) through (H) being conducted sequentially, beginning with step (A) and concluding with step (H).

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to games, more particularly to card-type games that are suitable for use in gaming establishments, and more particularly to poker-type card games that are suitable for use in gaming establishments such as table games and as video games.

There are in existence many poker card games based on the comparison between five-card poker hands. The player having the highest poker hand is the game winner. Hands are ranked in standard poker fashion, i.e. royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and high card, in descending order.

There are two main distinctions that separate this Poker Casino Game from other poker card games:

{Note: The “a)” designations in the following list refer to other poker card games. The “b)” designations refer to the current invention.} 1a) When other card games are played in a casino-setting, players are either dealt a single hand or multiple hands that do not share cards. 1b) In this Poker Casino Game, players are required to select one of their three cards to be shared across two hands. 2a) When other card games are played in a casino-setting, the dealer does not discard one of his cards before creating a final poker hand. 2b) In this Poker Casino Game, the dealer is required to discard one of his cards before creating a final poker hand.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The following description explains how the game of the present invention is played. Listed are six different events taking place sequentially during the course of the game. The description pre-supposes five players, although the game can be played by different numbers of players, from one up to about fifteen players (plus the dealer as an additional participant).

The game is played with a single deck of cards containing four suits of thirteen cards per suit, making a total of fifty-two cards. The deck is conventional poker deck (or bridge deck). The aim of each player is to achieve two five-card poker hands whose values will each exceed the value of the dealer's five-card poker hand.

For the purpose of illustration, the events described below use the following assumptions: 1) a bonus bet is offered by the casino, but the option is not take by any of the players; 2) after three cards are dealt to each the player, each player, in turn, is given the option to either a) surrender his hand, along with ½ of his bet, b) place a second bet, independent from the first, equal to the amount of the first, c) for a fee of $0, discard one of his three cards and receive a replacement card from the dealer. (No second set of options will be available to players who opted to replace a card.), or d) proceed with game without additional wager or card replacement; 3) the number of each player's five-card poker hands whose value exceeds the dealer's five-card poker hand is determined and the initial bet is resolved as follows: 0 (the value of each of the player's five-card hands do not exceed the value of the dealer's)—player loses bet; 1 (only one of the player's five-card hands values exceeds the value of the dealer's)—player pushes (neither player nor dealer wins bet); 2 (the value of each of the player's five-card hands exceeds the value of the dealer's)—player wins bet and the house pays the player an amount equal to the player's bet; 4) for each player who wagered a second bet, the number of that player's five-card poker hands whose value exceeds the dealer's five-card poker hand is determined and the second bet is resolved as follows: 0 or 1—player loses second bet; 2—player wins bet and the house pays the player an amount equal to twice the player's second bet.

Event No. 1 is the beginning of a hand. At this point, players wager their original bet amounts, limited by a minimum and maximum as determined by the casino.

Event No. 2 involves the dealing of three cards, face-up to each player and three cards, face-down to the dealer.

Event No. 3 the decision by each player, in turn, to surrender his hand, along with half of their bet, place a second bet, or select and discard one of his cards and receive a replacement card dealt by the dealer, or select none of these options. At the end of Event 3, each player promotes one of their cards to be used with each of the other two, forming two two-card hands.

Event No. 4 is the dealing of three community cards.

Event No. 5 is the revelation of the dealer's three cards and the dealer discarding one of his three cards, such that the two remaining cards which yield his optimal five-card hand when combined with the three community cards.

Event No. 6 is the comparisons between each player's set of two five-card hands, comprised of the combination of each two-card hands and the three community cards, against the dealer's five-card hand. If both player's hands' value exceed that of the dealer's, the player wins and the dealer pays him an amount equal to his initial bet amount; if that player also made a second bet, the player wins that bet and the dealer pays him an amount equal to twice the second bet amount. If only one of the player's hands' value exceed that of the dealer's, there is no payment to the player and the player does not lose his initial bet; if that player also made a second bet, the player loses the second bet. If neither of the player's hands' value exceed that of the dealer's, the player loses his initial bet; if that player also made a second bet, the player also loses the second bet.

It will be appreciated this Casino Table Game could be played with minor variations. Examples include: (1) special payout rules for predetermined outcomes such as a player receiving three cards of the same rank, e.g. four of spades, four of hearts, four of clubs; (2) alternate treatment of ties, i.e.: when the value of a player's five card poker hand equals the value of the dealer's five poker hand. A tie could be treated as a winning hand for the player, or special treatment of win-tie, lose-tie, and tie-tie combinations could be available; (3) the number of cards initially dealt to each player may be greater than three; (4) the number of cards dealt to the dealer may be greater than three; (5) a limitation on the card replacement option such as a requirement that the replacement card must be the promoted card; (6) any other minor rule change; any of which still substantially produces the same results, within the scope of our invention, as described. 

1. A method of playing a casino-based poker card game, between a dealer and at least one player and played with conventional playing cards totaling fifty-two cards per deck, the method comprising the steps of: requiring each player to place a bet; requiring the dealer to deal three player cards, face-up, to each player; requiring the dealer to deal three dealer cards to the dealer, the dealer cards being concealed from the dealer and each player; requiring each player to select which of their three cards would be used in both of his two-card hands; requiring the dealer to deal the three community cards face up; requiring the dealer to expose the three dealer cards; requiring the dealer to discard one of the three dealer cards, such that the remaining two dealer cards, when combined with the three community cards, form the dealer's best five-card poker hand; requiring determination of the number of winning hands for each player, where a winning hand is one where the rank of a player's two-card hand, when combined with the three community cards to form a five-card hand, exceeds the rank of the dealer's five-card hand; and finally the resolution of each players' bets evaluated using a predetermined payout schedule based on the number of each player's winning hands.
 2. The method of playing a card game of claim 1, further comprising the availability to each player, once dealt his three cards, of one or more of the following options, from which he may select one: a) to surrender his hand and relinquish a pre-defined portion of his bet to the dealer; b) to place an additional bet; and c) to pay a defined replacement fee, which may be $0, to discard one of his cards and receive a replacement card from the dealer.
 3. The method of playing a card game of claim 2, further comprising the availability to each player, having previously selected the option to replace one of his cards, of one or more of the following options from which he may select one: a) to surrender his hand and relinquish a pre-defined portion of his bet to the dealer; and b) to place an additional bet.
 4. The method of playing a card game of claim 1, further comprising the step of permitting a player to wager a side bet.
 5. The method of playing a card game of claim 2, further comprising the step of permitting a player to wager a side bet.
 6. The method of playing a card game of claim 3, further comprising the step of permitting a player to wager a side bet. 